As I was enjoying a premature summer’s day at Bondi Beach recently, I received a frantic phone call from the producer of the Kyle and Jackie O Show, wanting to know if I was available to teach Dannii Minogue, Andrew G and Jackie O, Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”. They had to learn it for a competition on the radio, to see which one of them could learn the routine the fastest. The catch was rehearsals had to start at 9am the next morning. Cutting my sunbaking short, I ran home to refresh my Beyonce booty shake.
Day 1. First day of rehearsals at Brent St Studios, got off to a late start. The girls were being pestered by the paparazzi, and as they did not want to be papped in their leg warmers, they were stuck driving around in their car. That left Andrew G and I to start learning the choreography on our own, his 7 hours of Saturday morning jazz classes helped him to pick up the choreography like a pro. While the girls were losing the paps and shopping, may I add, Andrew G was counts ahead and had learnt the entire chorus in under 20mins. When Jackie O and Dannii finally joined us, Jackie had on her pink jiffies ready to dance. I hadn’t seen jiffies since I wore them to my first ever dance class, I just couldn’t contain my laughter. After the delayed start I only got to spend 15mins with the girls. With only three days to learn the chory, I started to feel a little anxious.
Day 2. We decided to rehearse at the 2dayFM studios, so the girls were free from the paps. I secretly think they all went home and practised in their lounge rooms, as they all had remembered the steps. They were all taking this seriously. They all were out to win. We learnt the first verse, added this with the chorus, and added a ballet solo for Jackie, a step ball change for Dannii and well, Andrew created his own style and we were done. Phew! We had the chory down and with one more rehearsal to clean it up.
Day 3. The final rehearsal had arrived, the guys were all feeling the pressure of remembering the steps and then performing as well. Jackie was very committed, Dannii had the sexy face and hair flick down, but my favourite and the most outstanding was Andrew G. He was living. Now all we needed now some fierceness.
Day 4. After wrapping up their breakfast radio show, it was time for the performance. But first we needed to add costumes, make up and a hairpiece for Andrew. G. He had taken his role as Beyonce very seriously. It was a little reminiscent of Destiny Child days, with Beyonce in the middle scoring just a little bit of extra something. Andrew G added some gold hot pants and blue leg warmers, just for that added star quality.
I must say I had the nerves of a stage mother waiting for the cameras to roll, but like always the performance came together, except Andrew G swinging his switch a little too hard that it flew off.
Jackie O was focused and didn’t get a step wrong, Andrew G has all the fierceness in the world but at times was doing his own show, and Dannii Minogue on the end was being the sex kitten she always is. They all surprised me with how well they did in such a short period of time.
In my mind they are all winners, and all did a great job in learning this hot number. I got to walk away gaining a few more ab muscles from laughter.
KANE BONKE
